dr Dunkel

Just telling from the feel i get by checking what people drive 1-series cars around here it is easy to point out three diffrent categories:

1. Young men in cars with M-sport
2. Young couples in cars whitout M-sport
3. Company car 116i:s

I have yet to see my first 1-series with an elderly driver.

Curb Zone

 

bmwownage

No questions asked about whether it is an excellent car to drive, it's fun and i regard everything as perfect on the driving side.

As for its image, maybe it's regional... i mean as soon as 10 youngsters from a place start to say I prefer a A3 or Golf over the 1series, they spread it out and it becomes fashion, and then only older people buy it and then other younger people see mostly older people driving it and they would then think the 1er is not that cool to be in, despite its superior drive. That's probably a little unrealistic but to a certain degree i think it's like that. I wonder, at countries where the 1series hatch sells well to the young (18-30yrs?) market, how does the Mini compare? Same market? Similar volume?

Anthony

I am curious, what do you class as an elderely driver?

dr Dunkel

Well, elderly might not be the proper word, well the age range i was aiming at was those closing in on retirement... say 55-60 years old.

Elderly sounds a bit older than that does'nt it?

KokkenTor

Entire trunk/back area exposed and confirmed 135i:

Osnabrueck

Wow! Great find!

Yeah... um... I don't really like it. The shape seems very Volvo to me. There's something really un-spicey, um... like... It's not there. It's not bad, but it's not one of the twenty-odd interesting shapes I thought could be hiding beneath that camo.

The artificts in this photo lead me to believe that this photo is competely legit.

The Emperor

I have no problems with shape, but the size of them; they look too big...

Osnabrueck

The large shape gives the impression of a small (read: whimpy) car. You almost feel as though BMW is stacking the deck to prevent the 1er Coupe from looking too sexy.

My skepticism of this car just shot up another notch.

The Emperor

To me, none of the 1er versions look sexy... I do like it, but i also think that they could have done much better job with it's design.

Osnabrueck

I don't think any of the 1ers look sexy either, but the 1er Coupe actually has/had a shot at bucking the trend. This rear treatment just seems way too vanilla, too "volume seller" to do the trick.

Haven't you learned BMW?! Don't come to market with half-assed designs. You learned this with the 3er Compact and the North American flop that was the 318. I'm just scared now that this thing will come to market half-crippled thanks to BMW playing protector to their upmarket offerings.

Curb Zone